Book 1: The House of Shattered Wings

From the Nebula-award winning author of Obsidian and Blood, out now from Gollancz (UK/Commonwealth, paperback, ebook) and Roc (US, trade paperback): a devastated turn of the century Paris split between quasi-feudal Houses, addictive magic, fallen angels–and entirely too many dead bodies!

A superb murder mystery, on an epic scale, set against the fall out – literally – of a war in Heaven.

Paris has survived the Great Houses War – just. Its streets are lined with haunted ruins, Notre-Dame is a burnt-out shell, and the Seine runs black with ashes and rubble. Yet life continues among the wreckage. The citizens continue to live, love, fight and survive in their war-torn city, and The Great Houses still vie for dominion over the once grand capital.

House Silverspires, previously the leader of those power games, lies in disarray. Its magic is ailing; its founder, Morningstar, has been missing for decades; and now something from the shadows stalks its people inside their very own walls.

Within the House, three very different people must come together: a naive but powerful Fallen, an alchemist with a self-destructive addiction, and a resentful young man wielding spells from the Far East. They may be Silverspires’ salvation. They may be the architects of its last, irreversible fall…

THE HOUSE OF SHATTERED WINGS is a Gothic masterpiece of supernatural intrigues, loves and betrayals in a ruined and decadent future Paris — wildly imaginative and completely convincing, this novel will haunt you long after you’ve put it down.

Darkly entertaining. de Bodard makes Fallen Angels entirely her own in this post-apocalyptic Paris near the turn of the century. The personal politics of necessity blend and clash with the politics of the powerful as people—mortal and immortal—attempt to survive.

An intense, beautiful, brutal journey written with an eye for the stunning, vivid detail and the cruel demands of duty, loyalty, and leadership. Its portrait of a ruined Paris ruled by fallen angels is one I won’t soon forget.

A few times in a lifetime, a book comes along that wraps you completely in its world and its characters. You walk its streets, smell its flowers, breathe its air alongside the characters as their stories become your story, their lives your life. THE HOUSE OF SHATTERED WINGS is one of those books; convincing, gripping and filled with wonders.

THE HOUSE OF SHATTERED WINGS is thoughtful, complex, and engrossing, a fantastical thriller set in a Paris that is both instantly recognizable and yet utterly alien, peopled by characters grotesque, broken, and beautiful – often at the same time. When I had to put this book down, I couldn’t wait to pick it up again.

Trade Ppb (US)

Mass Market Ppb (UK)

BONUS: just as a teaser, the map of Paris I’ve already shared with a few people, showing the major locations of the novel:

(the greyed locations, Draken, Aiguillon and Hell’s Toll, are the Houses that fell during the Great Houses War and are no longer extant)

Q: Why is everything in the book (Silverspires, Morningstar) in English when the book is set in Paris?
It’s because while all the names are indeed those of French Houses, their meaning is important. To take just an example, “Silverspires” is a reference to Ile de la Cité, where the House is located–and which used to have the highest concentration of churches in the city. Hence the English. If anyone ever translates this into a foreign language, they’d need to translate all the names of the Houses (and possibly some characters’ names too!).

Q: What about outside Paris?
I only have 400 pages or so of novel, and I had to make some hard choices. There’s a lot of things happening outside Paris (actually outside the system of Parisian Houses): notably the suburbs and the Houseless areas are up to significant stuff, but I’ve had to move this particular plotline to book 2…

Q: Will there be a French version?
Yes! The French version will be published by Fleuve Editions, translated by Emmanuel Chastellière. Scheduled for 2017 last I heard.